So at first I read the headline as “Athena Takes Pleasure”, and I thought, how marvelous, that these are things she is taking pleasure in. This way is nice too, but I’m a little sorry my … reado, I guess … was wrong. :-}

Hi John. For your next book you should let Athena take a bunch of photos of you and then use one of them for your author’s photo on the dust jacket. That way she would get a photographer’s credit on the dust jacket. Maybe she would like to see her name in print like that.

To further add to the adulations, you do indeed have an eye for photography! It has been my experience that people either have that eye, or they do not. In other words, you can teach anyone how to take a good photograph, but you can’t teach just anyone what to take a great photograph of.

That being said, just because you have the eye doesn’t mean you can’t make the photos you took better.

The flower one is nice, but the focus being off distracts. I realize with point and shoot cameras, and especially phone cameras, there’s very little you can do. even on a bright sunny day you can have limited depth of field. however, by framing the flower so it is front and center, you draw attention to the ceneter of the flower which is out of focus. If you frame it off center, however, less notice will be taken of it. The Rule of Thirds is thrown around a lot, but it also works pretty well. This could also be a good photo to play around with brightness, contrast, and coloring with as well.

I love the moment you capture in the flag one. The only, small, tip I’d offer is to crop the diagonal portion of the house from the upper right of the frame. I think that takes a very good photo and makes it into a great one.

Finally, there are three things that the dog photograph desperately needs: Your signature, a frame, and wall to hang it on. Seriously, that is a fantastic, kick-ass pic!

I must say Athena, you have some photographic talent. You must get it from your dad.
You both have a much better than average eye. Your dad’s photos on this site are particularly good–professional quality even. You seem to be his favorite model.
You should enter some photo contests to help develop your talent further.
[In my college days I was a member of the local Photo club. (That was back when everything was done with actual FILM!) I entered many of the quarterly photo contests (and even won a few ribbons.) Not trying to brag–just trying to say that I had some training, so you take this as more than casual praise.]

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